Ensuring that the pulses prices don't go up by facilitating imports: Consumer Affairs secy

The Union government is likely to issue fresh guidelines that will make it mandatory to push out pulses into the markets within a month of imports. The move is aimed at curbing the rise in prices and crack down on hoarding.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Timsy Jaipuria, Rohit Kumar Singh, Consumer Affairs Secretary said, “By facilitating imports in a hassle-free manner, we are ensuring the availability of stocks in the market, thereby impacting the prices and I am sure prices will not go up.”

He added, “At the moment we are watching the import position in custom bonded warehouses and other our domestic warehouses of importers. If we see a hoarding tendency, we will impose a provision that beyond this number of days you cannot hold.”

However, the industry has opposed to the government imposing a time limit on when they have to release the imports into the markets. As things stand, companies have to comply with a stock limit on how much pulses they can hold.